In the following essay, Rorty reviews what he describes as a significant difficulty in the reading of Metaphysics, namely that it appears to lack unity and a conclusion. Rorty locates the primary source of the substance-form puzzle in Book Z, and argues that by understanding Aristotle's claim that genus is matter, a claim not often taken seriously, certain difficulties in Book Z are eliminated.

One difficulty in reading the Metaphysics is to locate the conclusion of the argument.1 The difficulty is so great that many have concluded that there is no conclusion, and no unity to the treatise. Now, it may well be that what we call a...